NATIONAL CITY SCHOOL RELIES ON EXPERIENCE

Foster grandparents help youngsters adapt to school life

Silvino Amogus, 85, (rear left) and Maria Gilman, 72, help Rhys Shilling, Leanna Barrios and Makayla Brooks maintain the garden at Palmer Way Elementary School in National City as part of the Foster Grandparent Program. Crissy Pascual

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Silvino Amogus, 85, (rear left) and Maria Gilman, 72, help Rhys Shilling, Leanna Barrios and Makayla Brooks maintain the garden at Palmer Way Elementary School in National City as part of the Foster Grandparent Program. Crissy Pascual

NATIONAL CITY 
For 20 hours a week, Monday through Friday, seven “grandparents” spend time fostering students at Palmer Way Elementary School in National City.

The Foster Grandparent Program is a national program that pairs low-income people 55 and older with preschool and elementary school children. Each grandparent is assigned two children to work with closely, though they often interact with more.

Palmer Way has a large population of Asian students and all of the foster grandparents at the school come from the Philippines. The grandparents help the kids with curriculum including reading, writing, math, and art, as well as with their behavior in class and homework. The school also has a garden filled with strawberries, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes and corn, and the grandparents help teach the kids about gardening and nutrition too.

“I taught them how to plant vegetables, how to water the plants and cultivate the plants,” said Silvino Amogus, 85.

Amogus has been in the program for nine years. He started in the program with his wife, who died two years ago at the age of 81. He decided to stay on because it gives him something to do.

“I prefer to come here rather than to be staying in the apartment all day, watching TV. I’m used to working,” he said.

Site supervisor Marissa Smith said when the community found out about Amogus’ wife passing away it got together and made cards and banners to give to him. She said even the kids who had been fostered by Amogus and his wife and had moved on to middle school came back to give their regards.

Marie Gilman, 72, is another foster grandparent and widower of 18 years. She’s been at the school for four years.

“I really love kids,” she said. “When I got this opportunity I grabbed it. They give me strength and help (prolong) my life.”

While the other grandparents like to eat lunch together, Gilman, who the students call Nini or grandma, prefers eating her lunch with the kids.

“She opens my milk and my fork,” said 4-year-old Makayla Brooks.

On this day Gilman also spent time reading the book “Mouse Paint” to a small group of preschoolers, some of whom climbed into her lap as she read. Gilman used to volunteer seven hours a day but has had to cut back to four hours a day because she hurt her leg and now walks with a cane.

“You should have seen her before, she would get out on the playground and play ball with the kids,” said Tracy Bristow, a preschool teacher and former site supervisor of the foster grandparent program.

The program is sponsored by Catholic Charities, a community service ministry of the Diocese of San Diego. There are 70 foster grandparent programs in San Diego and 38 in Imperial County. Funding for the program comes from the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America, and other national service initiatives. The grandparents all receive a small stipend, lunch and are reimbursed for transportation.

Smith said the program allows the participants to make a difference in the kids’ lives academically, socially, and emotionally.

“The grandparents are very excited to come back and to the kids they become their grandfather or their grandmother,” she said. “It’s a very good, enriching program. We’re very lucky that they keep finding a way to keep it running.”

Steve Salapare, 82, who’s been a part of the program for five years, said, “It’s really a great mission helping the kids to learn what’s necessary in the classroom. (And) it makes you a lot younger.”

Virginia Teves, 72, a two-year foster grandma, said the program gives back to her in many ways, one being that she’s picking up a third language.

“I’ve learned a little bit of Spanish, I take down notes and I practice. I can say, ‘Levante la mano,’” she said, referring to her knowledge of a new way to say “Raise your hand.”

Teves taught high school and college in the Philippines and said she loves the change of pace with the younger population.